Deceiver of Fools: Spies of Ostia
by Lack Thereof
Summary: [Leilacentric, MattxLeila] Dressup is no longer child's play. I believe it as an art form: the art of disguise. My life is sort of like my trade, a game of charades. Who am I?
1. Entry I Matthew

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**Operation: Black Fang Impostor- Case Closed  
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**by the Serenity**

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**_Entry 1_**

Some people call it sham and callous. Others use it for their own benefit. I believe it as an art form- the art of disguise. Controversial if you must, but a skill in itself. My life is sort of like my trade, a game of charades.

I am many people. I am an underdog for the marquess, one of Elimine's followers, a skilled assassin, a lover, an Ostian citizen, and lastly, a human being. What am I?

I am Leila. And I am not happy as of the moment.

I'd just returned to my living quarters inside a crumbling collection of apartments that consumed the entire block. I sighed and threw myself onto my straw-filled mattress, ignoring the throbbing pain in my head. I wondered how I could work myself out of this predicament.

I'd just returned from the Ostia's capital palace, and I should've been in a fine mood. Some people work their entire lives just to stand in the great hall. However, my lord, the head of the Ostian castle, Lord Uther, had assigned me on an undertaking. Although it would surely reap a great deal of gold, it was a yearly mission. I did not want to be absent from Ostia for a whole twelve months.

My assignment you ask? To puncture through their defenses, to become one of them. The Black Fang.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. How would he react? How could I tell him? Yes, oh how he added a whole new façade of complication to this situation.

Said complication just opened the door without even knocking, although I have become accustomed to it.

"Matthew?" I opened one eye and looked at him quizzically. The young blonde man smiled a habit he had adopted, and flopped next to me. I sighed. "Matthew, I just made the bed."

"I figured. You are too concerned about such small matters like bed-making." Matthew teased, poking me playfully.

"So when general hygiene a small matter?" I countered, whacking him with a pillow. He covered his head and retaliated with wallop on my head with another pillow. It continued on for another five minutes or so until we finally tired. Matthew sat back up and looked at me.

"You know, you'd make a fine wife. Not very docile though." Matthew laughed, but I knew he was serious behind the laughter. After all, we'd been dating on and off again for a year.

Marriage. It seemed to sneak its way into every conversation we had nowadays. The idea of tying the knot with Matthew was thrilling, but also downright frightening at the same time.

I laughed with him, and dug my fingernails into my palm until I summoned up the courage to face him.

"Matthew, I just returned from the castle..." I began, but Matthew seized my hand.

"You're leaving again? But I just returned!" Matthew pleaded, having returned from his mission to accompany Lady Lyndis to Caelin. I shook my head in remorse.

"I'll be leaving tomorrow." I informed the brown-eyed thief. He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head.

"I'll see you out tomorrow. Are you sure there's no one else to do this?" Matthew inquired. I sighed.

"Lord Uther specifically assigned me this. It pays big. We'll be able to buy a villa with the gold." I assured him.

"And a veil for you my dear." Matthew murmured back. Cold sweat sprung up on my palms.

"Of course." I purred back and showed him to the door. As soon as he left, I was left feeling empty. I went to my closet and starting packing things for my trip. I wouldn't have a ring on my finger for at least another year.

Somehow, in some way, that was a relief.


	2. Entry II Heather

**Operation: Black Fang Impostor- Case Closed**

**by the Serenity**

_**Entry 2**_

The world is very quiet now, the town of Ostia lulled into sleep. For me, that was my time to move. I silently left my apartment building, and grimaced as some stone fell away from the staircase, and immerged itself in a puddle of open sewer below. It wouldn't be long before this place collapsed.

The banister was dotted with bird droppings and ant carcasses, and the smell of dead pigeon and rat stenched the air. Again, thank Elimine I was leaving.

Sometimes I ask myself why I put up with such things. I usually cannot answer it.

I finally walked through the archway that led out of the complex and into the open streets. Vermin were alive and extremely well here. How disgusting. I draped my ratty goldenrod cape around my shoulders and hurried into the plaza, opting to take alleyways and detours then dare the main roads.

The stench was even worse in the back alleys, and I debated about telling His Majesty to do something about the poor hygienic conditions of his town. Then again, he most likely didn't care, or if he did, was too busy to do anything about it.

In the plaza, I was surprised to see another human being in the square, leaning against an elaborate water fountain in the center of the piazza. I immediately recognized her as Heather, a novice scout who had begun work only six months ago. Surely Lord Uther had more sense then to entrust a mission of this rank to her! Not believing it, I attempted to exit the capital sans Heather, but she noticed me.

"Leila!" she called and made her way across the square toward me, her breast-length dark brown waves cascading down her back. I groaned.

"Shut up! This is a S-rank mission, not a theater performance!" I reprimanded, feeling like a foreign babysitter by the second. She stopped a few feet short, her light clover green eyes looking at me in anticipation.

"I know! I'll do my best!" Heather bounced up and down, her rather large cleavage doing the same. I put a hand up to stop her, and wondered whether I should run back to the palace, retire early, and marry Matthew. No. Again, the idea of the veil was a daunting one indeed, and it momentarily paralyzed me.

"Heather, want to know how you can help?" I asked. Heather nodded, stopping her bounce. "You can go tell His Majesty you're not up for the task and it should be left to me alone."

"No! The last job I went on was just finding some noblewoman's lapdog, and that sucked. I never gotten to do real work before! I'm not leaving." Heather protested loudly. I closed my eyes, praying it wasn't so audible that we had awakened other foreign spies in the city.

"Fine Heather, let's go then." I compromised, feeling less confident about my mission and of Lord Uther's sanity as we walked along. Maybe I could put her to work. Like being Brendan Reed's mistress or something.

Yeah, that seems like a good idea.


	3. Entry III Bern

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**Author's Note:** Yup, it's been forever since an update, and I am very very very sorry for this. Please forgive me! Now, to continue! Special Thanks to Starfish Saver and Dark Blaziken, who have been faithfully reviewing for me! Thank you! And of course thanks to everyone else who reviewed- I read every one! And it's TWO CHAPTERS.

PS: I have changed my penname. I think its much more sophisticated then my last one.

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**Entry 3**

I apologize, for I should be able to write accordingly in this diary of mine, so I should be able to recall events when I need present them to Lord Uther, but I have been lackadaisical as of late, for many reasons, plus a personal cause to put some kind of use to Heather, my companion who is about as useful as a rock unless you count hurling it across the valley you're traveling in to ease your frustration. Unfortunately I am not strong enough to throw Heather that far, how much I wish I was!

Luckily however, our mission is not meant to go on much longer, thank the holies, as we have a week hence from here to arrive at our destination, the mountains of Bern, a large enemy country of Ostia I learned via Lord Uther's confiding in me, although it is no secret that Bern and Ostia have never been on friendly ground. He warned me to tread carefully in these parts, foreigners from other countries are never welcomed, and if they suspect you a spy they'd arrest you without hesitation. I will heed his advice, although I have been aware of this from previous escapades into this mountainous, rugged territory.

I wondered if Heather was aware of the dangers looming before us; I highly doubted it. I decided I was better off safe then sorry, so I looked behind me- she is rather a stroller then a walker- and found her admiring some flowers which had adapted to this rugged, harsh mountain range. I suppressed my annoyance for the umpteenth time that day, choosing to go to my apathetic, professional air I had maintained and prided on for so many years, even around my dearest friends, even around Matthew.

Heather possessed this beautiful talent to be able to drive this apathy and professionalism to the edge. She picked some flowers, and laughed as they tickled her nose, and placed them in her brown tresses, and I felt myself bordering on exasperation. I sighed, audibly enough for her ears to catch, however she ignored me, intended or not.

"Heather." I pronounced loudly. She glanced up from her now scientific fascination with these flowers, and realizing her mistake she had reprimanded many times before by I, hurried up and fell in step alongside me. I kept walking, silent, letting myself quiet down before I lost it on her.

"It's quite beautiful here." Heather commented, attempting to start some form of conversation between us, which I was none too eager to continue. She added, "Do you know I've never seen Bern before?"

I glanced up alarmed. This did not bear well. She was obviously unaware of the hostility Bern does not bother to hide to foreigners, especially in particular Ostians, and especially Ostian spies.

The mountains we were approaching were getting larger rather quickly, and I was quick to fill her in on Bern- on their king who was driven to madness by a secret love affair with a woman named Sonia, who was heard to be quite the exotic beauty. Lord Uther made no secret of his disgust for the King of Bern and his mistress, proclaiming that the Queen was more beautiful and moral then Sonia could ever aspire for. I had once chanced upon a glance of the mistress and the King at while attending a party along with the Royal Family in Etruria, she was disgustingly beautiful, that Thing which had taken on a shape of a woman.

"Do you think Sonia has some connection with the Black Fang?" Heather guessed, and I slightly turned my head to give her a look of mixture of disdain and disgust, a mixture that not even I could distinguish the two from each other. We walked on in silence, and finally we came to a place to stop for the night.

Before we drifted off to sleephood, out of the corner of my eye I watched Heather take out a silver locket and opened it. It was most likely a picture of her beloved. I had a sudden longing for Matthew, whose face I had not seen but two weeks ago. Two weeks ago when he urged me to walk down the aisle and marry him.

The longing instantly vanished.

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_A/N: Review rhymes with... you! _


	4. Letter to Pherae from Ostia

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**Letter from Lord Uther, Marquess of Ostia, Leading Federation of Lycia, to Lord Elbert, Marquess of Pherae, A Federation of Lycia.**

_Lord Pherae, _

I urge you to refrain from reading the following penmanship when your people are around you, possible spies, for enclosed within this letter is crucial information which can means deaths of many and uproars of federations if dare leaked.

I'm sure you know the Black Fang terror that's slowly creeping up the spine of Lycia, ready to announce itself right over your shoulder and take you by bitter surprise. However, we will turn around and greet that terror before it can excite us. Just in case you have not heard the latest in our investigation of this Bern-based organization, I will brief you on our findings.

As we all would surely know by now, the Black Fang in the past had been a simple, albeit skilled and respected, mercenary company headed by Brendan Reed, whose duty to society is to assassinate any kind of corrupt man in power, to keep the power of the people in Bern in check. However, about two years ago, the Black Fang abruptly switched operations and started to serve the King of Bern, and to my disgust particularly, he has changed for the worse himself.

I most unfortunately chanced upon an opportunity to speak with the King himself, who was accompanied by his mistress, a particularly vile woman who calls herself Sonia, who would not refrain from embarrassing herself and her king by openly displaying her affections for him. They have become unquestionably the most sinful arrangement of master and mistress in the history of Elibe, in my opinion.

I can not help but wonder if there is more to the story then meets the eye, and I will surely try to alert you whenever we have an update. Do be careful when sending a letter corresponding to this one back to Ostia- any letters to and from Ostia have a particularly hard time passing through the territory of Laus. I wonder why this is so?

To close up this letter, I ask on how my younger brother Hector is faring in your territory, and I sincerely hope that he has not been as much as an inconvenience to you as he has so strived to be for me.

_Lord Uther, Marquess of Ostia_

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_A/N: Reviews make me write faster, holla! _


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